and former connecticut senator chris dodd who squared off with barack obama in 2008. in the presidential primaries. richard norton smith of george mason university is here. and finally, we're especially pleased to be joined by abc's senior foreign affairs correspondent martha raddatz. martha expertly moderated the debate thursday night. buzz feed gave you the nickname of badass supermoderator. so let's give martha a huge round of applause. [ applause ] >> thank you, thank you, thank you. >> and as you just saw, we have a great audience here at the newseum. thanks to you for joining us this morning. the question today, do presidential debates change elections? do they matter? the answer at first blush seems simple, of course debates matter. the candidates spend weeks, if not months, preparing. tv audiences are enormous. 67 million for the first meeting between romney and owe what. afterward, in our twitter-fueled, shortened attention span news cycle, the performances are talked about. years, even decades later. here's richard nixon. ruing the a lack of preparation that